Inside The Bills

He got beat for a pair of long touchdowns last week including the game winner in the team’s Week 3 loss to the Jets. He also had a big pass breakup to save a touchdown on an attempted flea flicker by New York. For Justin Rogers Sunday night and Monday weren’t much fun, but on Wednesday Rogers had effectively put his last outing behind him.

“Yeah I think I’ve been able to do for the most part,” said Rogers following Wednesday’s practice. “It was unfortunate and I was kind of hard on myself. The thing about this game is you’ve got to move on and I think my teammates and especially coaches they’ve really been pushing me to move on. By them telling me to move on and short term memory and getting out there today and being able to practice I kind of put it behind me.”

Rogers, who said the corrections for his game deal mainly with technique (getting in position, getting head around, not peeking too much at QB), knows his play last week will put a bulls-eye on his chest, but the cornerback sees that as an opportunity, not a problem.

“It’s definitely an opportunity to make plays,” he said. “This game is about making plays when you look at it. The more opportunities you get, the more times you get thrown at, the more opportunities to make a play so you’ve got to accept the challenge.”

Head coach Doug Marrone, who still had Rogers lined up at one of the starting cornerback spots in practice Wednesday, is adamant that the defense has faith in his abilities.

“Justin Rogers is not the first player to have a poor game,” said Marrone. “The one thing about it is he’s on this team and he’s out there practicing and like I said after the game, the one thing I appreciate is competing. It would be different if he fell down or wasn’t near the play or couldn’t do it, but he’s right there to make that play. We know it’s very close and we just keep pushing him to be able to do that.

“This sport you have to be so mentally tough, especially at corner. The two positions when you’re out on islands, people talk about corner and left tackle. You’ve got to be able to forget and come back the next play because if you can’t you’re not going to really last in this league and I think that’s something we all know. He’s got to shake it off. He went out there today and competed his butt off and that’s what we expected from him.”